Meet five-star EDGE Carter Meadows, the highest ranked commit in Michigan's recruiting class

Basketball has always been a way of life for Carter Meadows.

His father, Michael, played for Williams College. His uncle, Randy Ayers, was the head coach of the Allen Iverson-led Philadelphia 76ers in the early 2000s. Multiple other family members have played in college and overseas.

Carter was a key part of Washington (D.C.) Gonzaga’s state basketball championship this winter and went viral on the AAU circuit for a posterizing dunk in the prestigious Peach Jam AAU tournament last month.

But Carter won’t continue the family tradition.

His future is football.

“My family has always been a basketball family,” Carter said. “It’s always been in my DNA that I was a hooper. But going into high school, I stepped on the football field and felt that energy. It kind of took off from there. After my freshman season, I saw the potential I had. I knew if I kept working and put my head down, I could be great at football.”

Ranked as the No. 2 EDGE and No. 5 overall prospect in the 2026 recruiting class, Carter committed to the University of Michigan this summer, selecting the Wolverines over fellow finalists Ohio State, Penn State and South Carolina.

The five-star prospect won’t attempt to play both sports in Ann Arbor. Instead, Carter will focus on developing in a program that has produced several recent NFL Draft picks at the position, including 2022’s No. 2 overall pick, Aidan Hutchinson.

Carter has all the potential in the world and his family’s full support.

“I’m a basketball guy,” Michael said. “You have aspirations of your son playing college basketball just because we’re a basketball family. But in the end, we tell our kids, ‘it’s your fit, your path and your passion.’ I try to be one of those dads that doesn’t live vicariously through my kids. Football was going to be his path. I may, for a second, have been like ‘wow, it’s not going to be basketball.’ But I’m super happy for him.”

The athleticism Carter has shown on the court carries over to the football field. He also happens to be a hair short of 6-foot-7, weighs 230 pounds and has freaky length. It’s hard to find EDGE prospects with his size who can move the way he does.

Carter may try to downplay it, but his family will be the first to tell you that he’s always been a ‘giant.’

“I had problems finding a stroller for him,” his mother, Cheri recalled. “Seriously. I had to research strollers (laughs). He was so long and heavy, but he was just a baby. Carter has been off the charts since birth.”

That’s part of the reason his sister, Drew, who is six years older than Carter, never had a second thought about roughhousing with him. The two were even ‘tussling,’ as Cheri calls it, before they sat down for interviews.

Both Carter and Drew vividly remember a Thanksgiving pillow fight gone wrong from their childhood. Drew whacked a five-year-old Carter and sent him flying into a pillar, causing a scar that Carter still wears with a badge of honor.

“He’s definitely gotten his get back now,” Drew said with a laugh. “I feel bad about it. I do. But the score has evened out.”

Drew eventually left home for Arizona State, while Carter began wrestling with offensive linemen and started blossoming as a football player. He picked up his first offer from Miami as a freshman. Then it snowballed from there.

Schools from across the country jumped in the mix for Carter as he quickly transformed into a blue-chip prospect.

“Early on, we saw (the recruiting process) as an opportunity for Carter to have adult conversations,” Michael said. “We tried to give him our thoughts on how to hold these conversations, how to be truthful with these coaches and how to build these relationships. But we didn’t want to be gatekeepers. Half the time, we didn’t know who he was talking to. As we went through the process, we started to have shorter lists. But to be honest, we weren’t that involved. For every 20 conversations Carter had, we may have had one.”

Carter took a calculated approach to the process.

He limited interviews with reporters, mostly stayed off social media and never discussed NIL publicly. In the current climate of college football recruiting, NIL can often be the biggest factor for five-star recruits.

That was never the case with Carter.

“I didn’t start playing the game as a kid to get NIL,” Carter said. “I played it because I loved it. People should realize that you play football because you love the game first. Anything after that is an added bonus.”

Carter is the definition of a true student athlete.

Gonzaga is one of the top academic high schools on the East Coast and boasts a picturesque campus in the heart of the nation’s capital. Carter proudly carries a 3.9 GPA and plans to major in business at Michigan. U-M, of course, is home to the prestigious Ross School of Business — something that really gave the Wolverines a boost in his recruitment.

Carter won’t be the first Gonzaga alum to end up at Michigan. Offensive lineman Evan Link signed with the Wolverines during the 2023 recruiting cycle, while defensive back Kainoa Winston is set to be a freshman this season.

“What Gonzaga values as important, Michigan values as important,” Carter said. “That really gave me that home feeling. Michigan reminded me of where I’ve been these last four years. I just wanted to be up there…. I’m a student athlete, not an athlete student. I want to set myself up for life and success after football. I think Michigan can help me get there.”

Michael works in cybersecurity, while Cheri is in academia, serving as a major gifts development officer for the University of Maryland.

Education was always at the top of the list for the Meadows family. But they also wanted to find a program that offered elite development on the football field, a unique culture and just the best overall fit for their son.

Michigan checked all the boxes.

“At the end, Michigan was the right fit because they had high-level academics and football,” Michael said. “But I have to start with the people — the players, the coaches and the recruiters. From Coach (Sherrone) Moore to (Director of Recruiting) Sam Popper to (Director of Academic Services) Claiborne Green to a young staffer who drove us around in the golf cart — the people stood out. Then you look at the stellar academics. Kids are fighting to get into Michigan. Then you talk about the tradition, the high-level football and the ability to develop him.

“You put all that together, and I felt early on that it was a very good fit for Carter. Michigan knows who they are as a program, and they do a great job of articulating that to families. That’s important.”

Cheri shared similar sentiments.

“I think it was the right fit because it was the right fit for Carter,” Cheri said. “I’m a Penn State alum. But just because I went to Penn State didn’t mean I automatically thought he was going to Penn State. I could see, throughout the whole process, that Michigan was a better fit for Carter. I could just see it — the program, the coaching, the facilities, the location, the business school and the campus. For Carter, Michigan was just the best fit.”

Michigan even impressed Drew. Despite all that ‘tussling,’ Drew played a critical role in Carter’s recruiting journey, joining him on multiple visits.

“I could tell he was really at home there,” Drew said. “I think the process was stressful for him. You don’t want to disappoint anybody. Michigan was the last visit, and I could tell there were a lot of emotions. The decision was coming up, and that was a stressor. But once he got to Michigan, there was a lot of excitement. It was like letting out a deep breath because he knew that’s where he was going. I’m really excited to see him grow as a player and person.”

The basketball days are done.

Cheri, Michael and Drew have all been doing their best to study up on football as the whole Meadows family gets ready to make frequent trips to Ann Arbor to see Carter in the winged helmet.

And yes, you can bet Drew will still mess with her ‘little’ brother. She may even take a jab at Carter’s slight color blindness.

“It doesn’t impact me on the field, but in daily life, sometimes people make fun of me for it,” Carter said, smirking at Drew. “I’ll say ‘this is blue,’ but it’s really purple, and my friends will laugh. On the field, I might not see the right type of color, but it’s different from the jersey I’m wearing, so that’s all I focus on.”

A word of advice, Carter — just hit the guys in Scarlet and Gray, and you’ll be fine.